HOUSE OF LORDS - United Kingdom Parliament

or reserved matter unless he has laid the bill before the United Kingdom
Parliament. In an urgent case, the Secretary of State may submit the bill
for immediate Royal Assent; but he must then lay the Act before both
Houses at Westminster. Either way, when such a bill or Act has been laid
at Westminster, each House has 20 sitting days within which a motion to
oppose the bill or Act may be tabled.
10.62 Under the Act, any such motion must be signed by at least 20
members of the House. The usual rules of the House on adding names
to motions (see paragraph 6.47) are dispensed with for these motions on
Northern Ireland Assembly legislation.
10.63 Procedure on these motions is as follows:
when a Northern Ireland Assembly bill or Act is laid before the
House, its arrival is recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings, and in
a table in the legislation section of House of Lords Business
entitled “Northern Ireland Assembly Legislation on
Reserved/Excepted Matters in Progress”. This table shows the
expiry date of the 20-day statutory period. If 20 sitting days pass
and no motion is put down, the House’s involvement is at an end;
if within the 20 days a member of the House tables a motion to
oppose the bill or Act, the motion is printed in House of Lords
Business;
signatures to the motion may be added in the Table Office or the
Public Bill Office;
signatories to the motion are listed in House of Lords Business. If
further members of the House add their names, they are added to
the list. Once 20 have signed, the list is replaced with a total number;
a signature is required, either on a copy of the motion, or on a
note clearly indicating the Lord’s wish to be associated with the
motion. Fax, e-mail and telephone are not acceptable;
the master copy of the motion, with a consolidated list of
signatures, is kept in the Table Office, and is open for inspection;
a Lord may withdraw his signature at any time, by giving written
authority;
if, on the 20th day, the number of signatories has not reached 20,
the motion is ineffective. If it has reached 20, the motion may be
put down for a day and debated in the usual way. When the
motion is put down for a day, only the name of the person who
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